Weekend Newsstand: September 7, 2013

It's here! The weekend! Hurrah! In the news: Metrolinx will launch public consultations this fall to examine ways to ease overcrowding on the Yonge subway line, Captain John's future may be in the court's hands, formally unionized restaurants have labour issues, and more on the maple bacon jam disaster.

It’s been a busy week in transit talk—a hot topic unlikely to grow tepid any time soon, and a conversation topic poised to widen further still. In order to generate some ideas for alleviating crowding on the Yonge subway line, Metrolinx will start a string of public consultations this fall. Their hope is to release a preliminary study next spring, and a “long list of alternatives” next summer. One of the alternatives under consideration is whether or not GO Transit can shoulder a little extra weight during rush hour (weight in the form of extra commuters, that is). In the meantime, keep those commuter elbows up and get your thinking caps on—surely someone out there has the cure for our overburdened transit woes. (Somebody? Anybody?)

The future of Captain John’s may no longer be in Toronto’s water, but rather, up in the air. On Monday a City of Toronto committee will debate whether the City should partner with the Toronto Port Authority and Waterfront Toronto to have the ship seized and advertised internationally for sale. This comes more than a year after Toronto officials shut down the restaurant, and with owner John Letnik owing about $1 million in property taxes and slippage fees dating back to 2002. However, past history shows that this form of removal doesn’t tend to happen quickly, so it’s unlikely that we’ll see the ol’ ship bobbing off into the sunset anytime soon.